... So, when we are beating on something improvised we may very well "hear" the intended "thump shtickity tap tap" but what people around us, who haven't the benefit of a direct connection to our brain, actually hear is something more like "thud thud thud thud".
John
Aye, as you've said it quite nicely, there's the rub:
The all too often frustrating difference between PERCEPTION and REALITY.
Like Icarus flying too close to the sun, I am often drawn close to this demarcation line between what I
know in my soul to be true, and what everyone else around me
believes to be true and if/when they are different, it can be a big challenge.
Maybe that's why I was always getting yelled at for making so much noise as a pre-teenager by tapping on everything around me incessantly, when to me, I was
drumming out the songs in my head, which must have sounded like random and spastic knocking to everyone around me.
But on the topic - I find that if my hands get pain (I haven't yet been diagnosed with arthritis), and it feels like a tightness in the finger joints, it's often because my hands are cold(er).
I have found the best way for me to warm them up is by playing and strumming as vigorously as I can, for as long as I can, and try to push through the pain, and almost as if by centrifugal force, get more blood flowing, and therefore more oxygen flowing into my hands, which makes them warmer, and if I persist to this point, the pain has gone away. But then, I might actually have a different problem. Like edema or swelling due to poor circulation as per below.
I've recently tried these
Dritz Crafter's Gloves I found on Amazon. They are compression gloves, in that they are brown-colored stretchy lycra cotton, fingerless gloves. By virtue of their composition, they seem to keep my hands warmer, as well as provide a light amount of squeeze support not unlike an ACE bandage. They cover the entire hand, up to the last joint before the finger tips.
It's a little weird to fret with gloves on, and barre chords sometimes buzz a little, but once you get used to them, and play for a while, it feels like your hands are actually getting a gentle massage.
Also, recently I 'found' in my junk drawer an 'egg' of Silly Putty, and while sitting at the computer or talking on the phone, I've taken to kneading it and shaping it over and over and over. Doing so, you can feel it get warm. I do this with both hands. Since doing this, it seems to have prevented the tightness feeling that I used to sometimes get in my hands from time to time.
Maybe try to get some Silly Putty or a softer rubber ball (like a Squash-ball, Raquet-ball or hand-ball) and when you are not playing the ukulele, squeeze it in different ways in order to exercise your fingers and get the blood flowing. Doing so might also increase your finger strength, speed and overall manual dexterity, which can only improve your ukulele playing. It's also a cheap way to test if you can benefit from direct physical therapy for your hands.
-Booli
